Lost Wonder

Last Friday I had some friends in town with their 3 kids. It had been a long time since my wife and I had seen them so it was great to catch up. When they were planning their trip to visit us here in San Diego I discovered they had never been to Sea World. Katie and I thought it would be fun to bless them with tickets, so we did just that.

My daughters are a lot like me when it comes to taking people to places we have been but our guests have not. We want to take them to all of the ones we like and talk about how awesome it is. One of the things we like best about Sea World is Blue Horizons. We told our guests a little about the show. We told them about the Dolphin’s and Pilot whales, the birds, actors, acrobats, high divers, bubbles, shooting water and the flags and…. If you have seen the show you know what I am talking about. I had them all sitting on the edge of their seat when the show started; to my surprise thought it was not Blue Horizons. The show was called Dolphin Day’s (or something like that) and all it had were some dolphin trainers talking about the dolphins as the dolphins did flips in the air. There was also the occasional guy surfing a dolphin… Yippee, No big deal.

As I watched Dolphin Day’s I found myself completely disappointed because, where were all of the added extras? Where were the divers and acrobats and music and… As I was talking with my wife and kids about how lame this show was I looked at my friends. To my surprise they were still sitting on the edge of their seats in complete awe of what they were seeing. They were even standing at one point trying to get pictures and videos. I noticed that they were in complete awe. It was at this moment I realized, I had lost the wonder. I had been so over stimulated with all of the extras that I lost the wonder of how magical it is that people can train wild dolphins to crazy flips in the air. Somewhere along the way I was not the only one that lost this wonder, thus they added the acrobats, divers, etc.

The next day as I was processing how self absorbed and over entertained I had become I read in my reading plan Psalm 51:12, “Restore the joy of Your salvation to me, and give me a willing spirit”. King David writes these words after the prophet Nathan confronted him because of his sin of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11 & 2 Samuel 12). David had taken his eyes off of God given role and the grace extended to him and began to fill his life with extras. In Psalm 51:12 you can hear the cry of David’s heart, Lord take me back to the basics, take me back to where it all started, take me back to the wonder of knowing you and where your salvation was enough.

As I meditated on this verse and thought about my recent trip to Sea World I realized that the wonder of God’s amazing grace was lost in me. I had lost the wonder of just knowing him and knowing that He loves me. I had begun to fill my life with extras. Better worship services, more lights, more powerful preaching, more conferences, more connections and networking, more, more, more. I was becoming rigged and religious. The wonder of just being his son and him being my heavenly father was lost… momentarily. I am happy to say that thanks to David’s cry in Psalm 51 and maybe a few dolphins flipping in the air I was able to find that wonder all over again.

What about you? Is the wonder lost in you also? If so you can get it back.

Amanda Cook may have said it best in her song entitled “Wonder“. She sings throughout the song, “may we never loose our wonder”. I never want to come to that place again; I never want to lose my wonder for God and who He is in my life.